The present invention relates generally to palletized loads, and more particularly to a novel protective tray and method of utilizing the tray in a palletized load to prevent damage to stacked bags of particulate material or other packaged products by pallet slats in the event of load shifting during handling or shipping of the palletized load.
It is a common practice in shipping and storing bags of particulate material, such as salt, small stones or rocks, sugar and fertilizer and the like, or other packaged products which lend themselves to palletized shipping and storing, to stack a plurality of the bags or packaged products on a pallet. Pallets used for such purposes typically have a plurality of spaced parallel wooden slats secured transversely to the upper surfaces of at least two runners so as to facilitate pickup and movement of the loaded pallet with a forklift type vehicle. The bags or packaged products may be stacked in a single layer or several layers high on the pallet. While attempts have been made to stabilize the stacked bags relative to the underlying pallet, such as by encircling the stacked bags or packages with a net or mesh, sudden movement of the loaded pallet during handling or transport can result in shifting of the load relative to the pallet. This frequently results in one or more of the bags or other type containers in the bottom layer being ripped open by the side edges or ends of the slats, particularly where the product containers are capable of sagging between the spaced slats. As the load shifts, the bags or containers in the lower layer adjacent the leading edge of the shifted load generally overhang and sag about the longitudinal edge of the outermost slat or about the end edges of a plurality of slats. With heavy loads, this makes it virtually impossible to push the stacked bags or containers back onto the pallet without tearing or ripping the lower overlapping bags or containers, with resultant spillage of the contents. When this occurs, the entire load must be restacked onto another pallet and the contents of the broken or ripped bags or containers either discarded or repackaged. This leads to significant economic loss.